I love all of the holiday festivities around us on the Cape – Christmas parades, carolers, carriage rides and my favorite, the Falmouth Jingle Jog!
Jason and I did this race last year and honestly, we’ve been looking forward to doing it again ever since!
This year our run club friend Jen was running and we convinced Pat to come down from Boston to join us. We met up with Jen about a half an hour before the race and ran 2 warm up miles since we had all planned on running 5 miles for the day.
After our warm up we headed down to the harbor where the race was starting and met up with Jen’s dad and our friend Allison who had come to cheer with baby Catherine (little Catherine was even armed with a rattle to shake to cheer us on!).
The Falmouth Jingle Jog is a local small town race with only about 300 runners, most dressed in festive holiday attire. I was surprised by the number of kids running, but then again, Falmouth has a very strong running community and the Falmouth Track Club that Jason and I occasionally run with even has a youth track club and man are these kids fast!
I haven’t run many timed 5k’s (maybe 2?), so I was pretty sure there was a good chance I could PR, I just needed to stay under a 9 minute per mile pace (which I do often at our run club 3 mile runs!).
Our first mile went by quickly hovering right around an 8 minute pace.
We approached the Falmouth Road Race hill (they love to throw this hill into Falmouth race courses!) and we powered up it keeping our pace pretty steady.
Mile 2 was a few seconds over 8 minutes – both miles so far faster than I had been planning, but what the heck, it was only a 5k, so why not push it a bit!
We looped back up by the harbor and my watch beeped showing mile 3 at a few seconds under an 8 minute pace, so with just .1 miles left I pushed it hoping to cross the finish line in under 25 minutes.
Thanks to Allison for the photo!
My official time was 24:46, a 7:59 pace.
How about this, my friend Jen was the first female finisher overall – she is SO speedy!
And remember those Falmouth Track Club kids I told you about?? The first overall male finisher was 14 years old with a 5:44 pace!
After the race we stuck around for a bit to see Santa arrive by boat (which is obviously how he travels on Cape Cod!).
I have to admit, after running a pretty speedy (for me) 5k, I’m anxious to do a little speed work and try another one!
(Kind of crazy that I’ve run 8 marathons, but this is only my 2nd timed 5k!)
Live, Run, Grow 
How fun!! I have yet to do a holiday race but I hope to do one someday!
I did one on Sunday and it was downright delightful. The costumes were more elaborate than Disney races, I was not expecting that at all.
I haven’t done a Christmas theme race but they’re starting now. I’m focusing on the shorter distances as I try to comeback, and I like small 5k’s so I have room to run. The last 5k I did was very crowded, and used narrow trails.
awesome! I love your bow headband too!
Looking real good,like the outfits
Holy speed demon, nice work!
Thank you 🙂 great job to you too! Love this race!
Great job! Your sweater was so cute/ugly (in the best way!) and I’m totally amazed that this was only your 3rd 5k! They’re probably my least favorite race distance, but I feel like I did so many as I was learning how to run and increase my milage.
Wait a minute. Are you guys wearing SHORTS?!?!
It was like 50 degrees, I was actually warm in the sweater! We haven’t quite seen winter yet up here…
So jealous of so much! The fun holiday themed race (always want to do one, never have) the outfits, the scenery and YOUR TIME! YOU SPEED DEMON YOU! Maybe I can run a 7:59 pace for like .005 miles lol. You rock! 🙂
Wow!! I think 5Ks are super hard – because they are so short and you can really push yourself. Great job! And I love the outfits!!
Congrats on your PR! I like 5k’s but I’m usually training for a marathon or something bigger so I tend not to race too many in hopes I don’t injure myself! I’m hoping to hit a PR this winter after Disney 🙂